Use

Use, in medieval English property law, the right of one person to take the profits of land belonging to another. It involved at least two and usually three persons. One man (A) would convey or enfeoff land to another (B) on the condition that the latter would use it not for his own benefit but for the benefit of a third man (C)—who could be A himself. C (or A), thus, had the profits—that is, the use—of the land and could treat the land as he pleased. This legal institution, which arose as early as the 11th century, came to be employed not only as a legitimate method of providing for property management and for conveyancing but also as a method of defrauding creditors, depriving feudal landlords of their dues, and permitting religious institutions to derive the benefit of land that they could not own directly.

Originally, carrying out the use depended on the conscience of the person entrusted with the property, because there was no writ by which the common-law courts could enforce it. Toward the end of the 14th century, however, the equity courts began to issue decrees for its enforcement. Whereas common-law courts had considered B to be the full owner, equity courts viewed him as merely the nominal owner and considered C the true, or “equitable,” owner and rendered judgments on that basis.

By 1535 the use had become so objectionable because of its frequent employment for improper and illegal objects—particularly for avoiding dues or taxes—that Parliament enacted the Statute of Uses, which abolished many forms of the use. The uses that survived were called trusts, and they constitute the foundation on which the modern law of trusts exists.